Explainer: Who is Stephen Miller?

What you need to know (tl;dr):

1. As of this moment, he's essentially the President. He dictates the hardline policy that is a broad attack on anyone whose citizenship is deemed questionable. He yelled at other government officials to raid Home Depots and 7-11's in order to raise the numbers of those thrown out of the country.
2. He is unfit to serve in government. He constantly demonizes others and escalates attacks. He does not treat his fellow citizens with any dignity; it is not clear what law or policy he actually knows, because he will say anything.
3. Those who defend the federal responses against the protesters are in effect defending him. We should look at the white nationalist rhetoric of the man serving as Deputy Chief of Staff in the White House, who in actuality is able to utilize extreme and suspect executive power.

How is he "essentially the President?"

We begin with something that's obvious but requires a little reflection. Have you noticed Trump doesn't always know what's going on? Like, at all? Here's POTUS with no clue that his administration is stopping students from other countries from coming here:

You can say that's a bad example because he's an older man with some issues becoming visible and the journalist has an accent. But it is far from the only incident.

The most important example involves Stephen Miller himself. Not so long ago, Trump administration officials discussed bombing Yemen at length in a group chat that was far from secure. We know it was far from secure and highly irresponsible because they accidentally added a journalist to their group. When they were talking about how they knew they were to conduct airstrikes, it was Stephen Miller's interpretation of what the President said that was paramount. Thus, one former political advisor has called Stephen Miller the "de facto President." (You can read the Wikipedia article on this, where the Vice President's concerns about an airstrike are effectively nixed by Miller.)

To be fair to the Trump White House, Miller is not the only one who can get his way. Ben Collins observed that the White House is composed of distinct factions which do as they will. These factions are not always on the same page, e.g. Elon Musk's black eye. Still, the most relevant for our sake: Musk and DOGE (not about government efficiency, but rather collecting data and intimidating Musk's competitors); Miller (obsessed with hurting people of color); RFK, Jr. (serving as Trump's avatar of revenge for those who responsibly handled COVID); Russell Vought (cutting the federal bureaucracy to advance Christian nationalism). Out of all of these, Miller wields the most power, as seen by the Marines and National Guard on the ground in Los Angeles, in front of U.S. citizens, with weapons ready to fire.

OK. So he's in charge. But how is Stephen Miller unfit?

His track record from the first Trump administration was disgraceful. Here's the SPLC:

Stephen Miller is credited with shaping the racist and draconian immigration policies of President Trump, which include the zero-tolerance policy, also known as family separation, the Muslim ban and ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

Quite a few of the people you see cheering on deportations have advocated, implicitly or explicitly, for other crimes against humanity. In the first Trump administration, Miller advocated for family separation. If people came to the border, the government took the kids they brought away. It has been years and many families have not been reunited. Note that if kids are pulled away from their parents at certain ages, they will not remember who their parents were.

The tweet Terry Moran, formerly of ABC, got fired for actually does a good job of explaining the issue with Miller:

Moran doesn't call Trump and Miller haters to argue they are unfit. He describes what the Trump administration has openly endorsed. You can see Trump call people "rioters" and "looters" all the time; he mused yesterday about arresting the Governor of California. This isn't love; Trump doesn't want to be thought soft.

Neither does Miller. You can watch him on Fox News repeatedly saying "deport, deport, deport," like he's an out-of-control teenager. I'm not saying that to be mean: that is the image he wants to project. He wants it to be clear that the wrong people are in the country and this is intolerable. Everything is broken because of everyone else:

I urge you to ask yourself if the way he talks resembles any standard of professionalism you are aware of. I am known for being outspoken. Even being outspoken, I have to do my best to represent the situation, how I see the problem, and how I conceive solving it. There are limits, of course, to explaining every single detail. And there are times I have to be angry, because not every viewpoint is advanced in good faith. Which leads to the final thing about Stephen Miller you need to know: the white nationalist rhetoric he is awash in.

What's this about the Trump administration and white nationalist rhetoric?

This is an old story, but an important one, especially as I have just told you this guy basically acts as the President. It's hard to summarize how much white nationalism Stephen Miller was immersed in 10 years ago, in 2015. It is undeniable, though, that all the trash he read and obsessed over turned into policy then and policy now. You can look through the e-mails he sent, when he promoted conspiracy theories saying that people from abroad want to replace white Americans and also how he was published on a white nationalist website.

Thanks to Isabella Mori, I listed to an episode of NPR's Fresh Air, where journalist Jean Guerrero outlined Miller's noxious views. Miller is a huge fan of a book entitled The Camp of the Saints, where nonwhite migrants and refugees are called "monsters" and depicted as such. Rhetoric from this book has found its way to Miller's employers, whether they are Breitbart or Trump himself. Guerrero pointed out that one lesson Miller learned from his mentor David Horowitz was to prioritize fear over hope in doing politics. It is notable that one can discuss Miller's political views at length and nothing close to a vision of hope or shared good emerges. His consistent message is that if immigration isn't stopped, people will die, and he ignores the experts when they demonstrate that immigrants commit fewer crimes than the native born (he'd rather try and make immigrants look scary) or that refugees are economically beneficial.

People are constantly saying the U.S. is being invaded and something has to be done. It is worth making them chew on the fact that this narrative comes from people speaking the language of neo-Nazis, as well as the fact it is blatantly untrue. Just because you're scared someone different is in the neighborhood doesn't mean that the U.S. is being "invaded."

Again, Miller's views have consequences. He holds an enormous amount of power; criticizing him obviously can come at a cost. The views that have the most consequence direct immigration raids at Home Depots and 7-11's in order to meet an arbitrary quota of people to be thrown out; threaten the people of Los Angeles and their elected officials; and, of course, set the stage for the National Guard and Marines to confront protesters.

This is your "de facto President." A guy who is so full of hate that he's helping place troops in major cities. I recommend communicating what I've written here to as many people as you can reach. What's on TV doesn't begin to describe how things actually work.

That having been said, it is worth ending this with a look at what Miller has wrought. The protests against the immigration raids he wants more than anything else have unleashed violence, as you can see in this video of an Australian journalist being deliberately targeted by police while reporting:

She wasn't the only journalist targeted while covering these protests. You should also watch this Tiktok where a woman is shot for absolutely no reason after talking to the police. There's certainly more footage of the protests that you can find, but these are some notable examples because they display such a gross abuse of power.